Reviews of the Helen Grant series

Note: These are from a clippings file of reviews for Douglas's books and appear courtesy of George H. Douglas. The sources are unidentified, but appear to be from contemporaneous magazines and newspapers. (The review of Helen Grant's Friends titled "Miss Douglas's New Book" is probably from either Newark News or Newark Sunday Call.)

Helen Grant's Schooldays

A wholesome, helpful story. Helen Grant is one of
many girls in a village school who work hard at home and.
have small incentive to study, but she gets glimpses of the
possible power and happiness that come of knowing much
and doing much. The principal of the school becomes
greatly interested in the force of her character and the
keeness of her mind. He encourages and helps her, but
she suddenly meets a rich woman of much sense and refine-
ment of whom she makes a friend. This opens a way for
her to study, and the account of her schooldays is very
interesting.

The books of Amanda M. Douglas hitherto issued, "In the
King's Country," "In Trust," "Larry," "The Kathie Boys " [sic]
and "Almost as Good as a Boy," have, as records kept at a
number of the great public libraries show, proved very popu-
lar, and with such a fine preparation for its success her new
book, "Helen Grant's Schooldays," cannot help but find a
wide audience of young people ready to peruse it with pleas-
ure. The story of the building of Helen Grant's life by a
benefactress who removes her from uncongenial surroundings
and has her wisely trained for a broader life, is in every way
wholesome and attractive. The people are real, the account
of boarding school life thoroughly natural, and the whole
atmosphere of the book clean and wholesome, as is alwavs the
case with the writings of Mrs.Douglas,

Helen Grant's Friends

Miss Douglas's New Book.

In "Helen Grant's Friends," the latest
story from the pen of Miss Amanda M.
Douglas, of this city, we hear of the
further fortunes of the young woman
who figures in the book, "Helen Grant's
Schooldays." Readers of the former vol-
ume will welcome this new narrative,
while those who have not made Helen
Grant's acquaintance previously will as-
suredly be pleased with this narrative
for itself. Miss Douglas writes of girl
life sympathetically and naturally, and
selects incidents distinguished for their
probability. It is a simple story that she
tells here, its charm consisting largely
in the fact that it might be the story of
any girl similarly circumstanced, Helen' s
ambitions and her devotion to duty do not
always make apparently for the same
ends, but in her various experiences she
grows toward womanhood. Interest will
be taken in the members of her circle of
friends and there are many attractive
glimpses of young life. At the close a
college course opens unexpectedly before
the heroine.

"Helen Grant's Friends," by Amanda
M. Douglas (Lee & Shepard, Boston;
Nunn & Co., Baltimore), is a sequel to
"Helen Grant's Schooldays." Many peo-
ple, and most of all girls, when inter-
ested in a book, are anxious to l[earn]
more of the characters, but sequels sel-
dom come up to one's expectations, and
this one opens gloomily. Poor Helen
had good cause to agree with the time-
honored saying about schooldays after
her father's sudden return. As "In
Trust," by the same writer, the story
shows how death's changes can be as
great for the survivors as for those we
wrongly call his victims. There is in
the present book the same high ideal of
duty, unselfishness and patient endu-
rance of all things as in the earlier
story. But Dr. Dick's sacrifices were
sweetened by love, while Helen's most
cherished plans were swept aside by a
father more mummy than man. Her
friends, too, were many of them of a
type to provoke a repetition of the cyn-
ical Frenchman's prayer. Altogether, one
can't help being glad when Professor
Grant goes to join "the buried peoples"
he thought more of than anyone on
earth, leaving Helen free to return to
the modern studies she preferred. We
may meet her again in more congenial
surroundings, as at the end ot the vol-
ume a series like the "Keathie" [sic] books is
promised. This story has many illustra-
tions by Amy Brooks, who is also a
writer for girls.

Helen Grant, Teacher

Books for Girls.In the seventh volume of the ca [illegible]
Amanda Douglas's most popular heroine,
girl readers will know her as "Helen
Grant, Teacher," and follow her fortunes
as a teacher in a new high school in a
small town and as interesting and lov-
able as ever. The Lathrop, [sic] Lee & Shep-
ard Company, publish this book as well
as Amy Brooks's "Prue at School," which
is the second of the Prue books, and the
same author's "Dorothy Dainty in the
Country," the eighth of this series, which
little girls like so much. From their
press also come Jean K. Baird's "The
Coming of Hester," a story of a school-
girl; Angelina W. Wray's "Mother
Tucker's Seven," a tale of family life ot
the self-help order; Nina Rhoades's
"Dorothy Brown," with its scenes laid
in a Connecticut girl's school and in the
White Mountains; Alice Turner Curtis's
"The Little Heroine at School," in which
the heroine of last year's book comes
East to a girl's school near Boston, and

Helen Grant's Decision

"Helen Grant's Decision." By Amanda M. Doug-
las. In this eighth volume of the Helen Grant series.
Helen is on her second year as teacher in the Westfield
High school. A better chance comes to her just before
school begins: but, as she has promised to go back
to Westfield, she declines the more lucrative position.
Before the year is over, she has to make another de-
cision which involves her whole future life. Al-
though she becomes engaged, this is not the conclud-
ing volume of the series. A promise to go abroad with
Miss Craven must be kept before she is married.
Girl readers who have followed Helen through all
these years will be eager to read this new volume and
find out the man of her choice and the manner in
which her decision comes about. (Boston. Lothrop,
Lee and Shepard Company. Pp. 428. $1.25.)

HELEN GRANT is as real to
thousands of young misses as
the girl who lives next door.
She is older now, and in this latest
of Amanda M. Douglas' series she is
entering her second year as a teach-
er in the Westfield High School. In
"Helen Grant's Decision" we have
an entirely new and independent view
of this sterling young woman who
has been so helpful and enjoyable to
her circle of friends in the past. The
wholesome influence upon the mind
of any girl who reads these stories
is not the least of their charm.
(Lathrop, [sic] Lee & Shepard Co.)